Two weeks and a biopsy later, and the single mum received the devastating news that her daughter had a mass that, while benign, was in a position between the lungs that meant it couldn't be removed without causing serious and permanent damage to her daughter.

"We took a 'wait and see' approach because she was asymptomatic," Meagan tells 9Honey. "During that time Taylor had MRI's every 12 weeks. It remained asymptomatic for the first three years, but then in the last year the pain started. The tumour had curved her spine and moved the verterbrae.

"We were transferred to a new hospital where we learned that she will have a whole army in theatre to remove the tumour," Meagan explains. "They have been having meetings about how they are going to remove it, with a spinal surgeon, orthopaedic surgeon having to break through the collar bone and ribs. There will also be nerve issues, a plastic surgeon and a cardiac surgeon involved."

Despite their best hopes, the tumour continued to grow. (Supply)

"It was the size of a large orange," Meagan says. "In a small girl's chest, it's just too big."

Taylor is now 9, and the surgery is being planned for early this year.

"Originally we were told the surgery would remove Taylor's sight and speech," Meagan says. "Now, it will be worse. She'll also lose all movement in her left arm and hand, her face will drop on the left side and won't move, and after another meeting with a neurosurgeon we discovered the tumour is now attached to the aorta and heart.

Meagan's daughter will undergo the risky surgery this month. (Supplied)

"The risk of losing Taylor from the surgery is even greater," she explains. "She could bleed out or have a stroke."

It's a tense time for Meagan and her family as they wait to hear from Taylor's doctors later this month on exactly how they plan to try and remove the tumour as safely as possible.

Taylor is no longer asymptomatic. "She has a lot of upper back pain and now it's on the nerves it's sending electric shocks through her chest and left arm, and she's losing feeling in her arm," Meagan says.

Just when the mother-of-two thought the situation couldn't get any worse, the cause of the tumour was discovered.

Taylor was diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis (NF1) -- a hereditary condition which leads her to develop multiple benign tumours.

The tumour is now affecting Taylor, 9, in multiple ways. (Supplied)

"The body creates small, benign tumours that sit on all of the nerve endings," Meagan says. "There's a lot of complications that come with it. We've just discovered that her brain is now riddled with them in the white tissue, the deepest part of the brain.

"We are meeting with another neurosurgeon about this," Meagan says. "She's been having a lot of symptoms not related to the main mass such as neck pain, behavioural issues and anger problems.

"Sometimes she screams in pain, saying it's like there's a grip on her head."

While Meagan does her best to be honest with her daughter during treatment, she hasn't explained the extent of her condition, nor has she explained the full risks of the surgery.

"I've always been honest with Taylor," she says. "In hospital, if something is going to hurt I tell her because I can't lose her trust. She knows that there's a surgery ahead of her and it will be bigger than having her tonsils removed.

"I haven't told her the possible outcome just yet," she says. "I've decided I will tell her the child version."

Meagan's son Roy, 5, also suffers from a serious health condition called Joint Hypermobility Syndrome, a connective tissue disease that causes the joints to fatigue, collapse and fall out of place.

"He was running down the driveway and just fell," Meagan says of the first sign something was wrong with her son. "He broke his foot and it was in plaster and then when it came off he just couldn't walk. It kept getting worse.

"He kept falling and was in pain and it was never just in the leg or the foot," she says.

Roy was diagnosed in 2018 and since then the little boy has experienced constant and serious pain in his legs, knees, ankles, feet, shoulders...in every joint in his small body.

Meagan's son has also been diagnosed with a serious condition. (Supplied)

"He has trouble drawing because he'll have to stop because it hurts too much," she says. "Physio just makes it worse. I put him in water as much as I can. The less weight on his body, the better he feels.

"It's tricky because he wants to be a normal kids," Meagan says. "But after half an hour he becomes grumpy as the pain sets in."

While Meagan receives support from family and friends, she feels overwhelmed.

It takes two hours for the mother-of-two to drive her children to their many hospital appointments. She works from home as a hairdresser as much as her children's health allows.

As for her own health, Meagan says when her daughter's first mass was diagnosed two years ago, she was "extremely overweight" having never focused on her own health.

That is, until her friend Tara asked her to join a fitness boot camp called 'Buns and Guns'.

Following her daughter's diagnosis, Meagan's friend signed her up for bootcamp. (Supplied)

Tara stopped going after the first session but Meagan continued.

"She stopped going and I kept going and I couldn't believe it," she says. "I felt sick before, during and after the workouts but they made me realise I was doing better each time and that got me hooked.

Meagan says she eventually began losing weight, from the exercise and the food and nutrition advice she was receiving as part of the program.

"Before I knew it I was training every day and I started to shrink and become fitter," she says. "Now it's not about body image anymore. My anxiety has disappeared and I feel stronger with everything else in my life as well."

At the end of the boot camp Meagan decided to further challenge herself by joining Anytime Fitness in Traralgon. By joining Anytime Fitness, Meagan is now able to exercise at any time of the day or night, whenever she finds the time outside of caring for her kids.

"It's a whole new world," she says.

She exercises every day that she can, even ahead of trips to the hospital and during times of great stress.

"Now I take each day for what it is," she says. "I don't let future events like surgery spoil the now."